Win Lyday announced NACo's Legislative Conference is being held at the end of the month. She encouraged members who have an activity in conjunction with NACo or counties and want to bring this to the attention of the NACo IT or GIS committees, that this is the place to do it.

Tom Usselman stated that the next Mapping Science Committee is April 16-17.

John Moeller announced the next Steering Committee meeting is February 24, from 9:30 am to 11:30 am, at the Main Interior Building, Room 5160. This is a partnership meeting with 30 FGDC recognized state councils invited to participate. A Pre-Steering Committee will be held February 23, participants expected to include state councils, NACo, ICMA, UCGIS, OGC, and Coordination Group members. The pre-meeting is a forum to allow issues of mutual concern to stakeholders be discussed and to prepare a presentation of agreed upon topics to the Steering Committee the following day. Coordination Group members are encouraged to attend the pre-meeting, as well as the Steering Committee meeting. Win Lyday, who is helping to develop an agenda for the pre-meeting, stated that they may want updates on NSDI activities from subcommittees, working groups and agencies. Details have not yet been decided.

Steering Committee agenda is available at: http://www.fgdc.gov/fgdc/agenda_2_99.html Pre-Steering Committee agenda has not yet been finalized.

Kim Burns-Braidlow reported that she has not yet received 1998 NSDI Progress Reports from:

Bathymetric Subcommittee

Subcommittee on Spatial Water Data

Wetlands Subcommittee

Clearinghouse Working Group

Earth Cover Working Group

The absence of these reports is delaying the report to OMB. Ms. Burns-Braidlow would like to submit a draft of the highlights of activities from '97 and '98 to the Coordination Group for review and comments before submitting the document to OMB.

Ms. Burns-Braidlow said in reviewing the reports received, there appears to be a need by some groups for presentations covering metadata, clearinghouse, standards, etc. Please contact staff or other groups to schedule briefings on these or additional topics. Also, many groups have reported accomplishments under Goal 1 - in increasing the awareness and understanding of the NSDI. Just a reminder to all to include FGDC/NSDI in presentations where appropriate. Presentation material is available from the FGDC web site:

Mr. Moeller announced that the 1999 Work Plans from Subcommittees and Working Groups are due March 31. The work plans should describe the anticipated activities for the calendar year '99.

Action: Subcommittee and Working Groups submit 1999 Work Plans by March 31.

Rick Pearsall distributed a memorandum, National Mapping Division's commitment to National Spatial Data Infrastructure Standards. Mr Pearsall explained that this memorandum is being distributed to clarify NMD's policy regarding NSDI standards. There was some confusion on this issue during a presentation given at the Coordination Group retreat in Shepherdstown, WV.

There was a brief discussion regarding the need for FGDC involvement in global data discussions. No decisions were reached. Fred Broome mentioned a recent policy statement made by a European Union (EU) official which encourages EU member countries to move towards a US model of data availability for the public.

Win Lyday mentioned that Microsoft is releasing a GIS package, ESAR, MicroPoint 2000 due this spring to go with Microsoft Office. This should heighten demand for spatial data. Mr. Moeller said we need to keep an eye on this. Mike Domaratz suggested having someone give the Coordination Group a briefing on the new Microsoft product.

Doug Nebert said there is harmonization efforts underway for DASL and GILS. Mr. Nebert also stated that ESRI's ArcData Online is the latest Clearinghouse site.

Standards Presented for Endorsement:

Rick Pearsall presented two standards for endorsement. The first - Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) Part 5: Raster Profile and Extensions. Mr. Pearsall gave a short history of the standard and John Crowe briefly mentioned those involved in the development of the standard. Receiving no objections, the standard was approved.

Decision: The Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) Part 5: Raster Profile and Extensions was approved to go forward to the Steering Committee for endorsement as an FGDC standard.

The Content Standard for Framework Land Elevation Data was also presented by Mr. Pearsall.

Mr. Pearsall said the Standards Working Group (SWG) develops standards that hopefully ensure the data produced by all agencies are compatible to the standards. During the public review of this standard, comments were received stating this is an agency standard and it would not be used by the larger NSDI community. When agencies were approached as to whether or not they would use this standard, many replied "No".

Mr. Pearsall reported that the SWG has had many debates about this standard regarding the name and the scope of the standard, etc. According to Mr. Pearsall, many agencies said because 'Framework' was in the title of the standard, they did not have to adhere to it because they did not, in their opinion, do framework data. Mr. Pearsall said that's when the debates started.

Mr. Pearsall said although this standard is very narrow in its scope, the SWG feels it is important to move this standard forward. In doing so, the next steps would be for other agencies or communities who are outside this standard's scope to come forward with an elevation standard dealing with their data. Creating a 'family' of elevation standards.

The Coordination Group expressed concern that the title and scope of the standard was not more precise about the data this standard will apply to. There was a discussion regarding incorporating the word 'Framework' into the title of other standards. No decision was reached however. There was a lengthy discussion over the definition of framework data. Members agreed that there is a lot of confusion regarding framework. It was suggested at the retreat, and again at today's meeting that the Framework Focus Group be reconvened to begin addressing the many framework issues.

Action: Framework Focus Group be reconvened.

Consensus was not reached on this standard as it was presented. The group recommended the SWG modify the title and better define the scope of this standard.

Action: SWG take comments from today's meeting and work with the Subcommittee on Base Cartographic Data to edit the standard. Rick Pearsall will contact the group Monday with the changes.

Subcommittee on Base Cartographic Data has decided to pull the Content Standard for Framework Land Elevation Data and further discuss the issues raised at today's meeting before proceeding with seeking approval.

Follow-up Discussions from Coordination Group Retreat:

The main purpose of today's meeting was to begin taking action on items identified in Shepherdstown. Using the matrix captured by Chesapeake Consulting (see Retreat results on FGDC web page) several action items were presented for identifying next steps, who should lead the effort, and a date by when which steps will be taken. The following 6 items are those that were captured for action:

It was decided that at future meetings we will review 1 to 2 accomplishment reports until all reports have been reviewed and discussed. Members will be notified 2 weeks in advance the reports that will be reviewed and are expected to have read the reports prior to the meeting. These reviews will be question / answer sessions.